Wednesday, 27 November 2013

Write This Run Conference

One thing I didn’t expect from this weekend was to meet
quite so many Santana fans but it just goes to show that there’s more than
meets the eye to the people who attended the Write This Run conference at the
Running Show this year.

Laura… not talking about sports bras

For those of you not in the know, Write This Run is a
community for bringing people who are passionate about running and writing
together. I’d known about them for a while, had heard excellent things about
their workshops, met the girls at the Women’s Running 10k in London earlier in
the year and so pounced on the opportunity to attend their second conference.

The Better Blogging panel

A rather over air-conditioned room at the back of the
Running Show venue at Sandown park hosted around 5 hours of truly inspirational
talks and panels which were broken up into themes which were in turn broken up
by lunch (provided) and coffee breaks. My favourite personalities of the day
were Jody Raynsford, Bangs and a Bun, Sophie Walker and Robbie Britton who made
me belly laugh and is responsible for inspiring me to try 24 hour events,
thereby giving my mum a few more grey hairs. The day was rounded off with a
choice of a yoga session or a running techniques class. Also included in the
ticket price was entry to the show and the 5k or 10k run on Sunday, which Idecided to take full advantage of.

Trying out a wordplay bag in the coffee break

Technically we had some time to look around the show before,
during coffee and lunch breaks but really most of us just wanted to chat and
get to know each other. Although I once again failed to pluck up the courage to
go and talk to Bangs, I had a lovely time chatting to Lucy from Lucy Lemon, Lucy
from Black and Tabby Runs, the Veggie Runners and Katherine Selby, Christina
Macdonald and one of the lovely photographers from Women’s Running. In fact I
got randomly chatting to quite a lot of people, even outside of the conference.
I love that about the running community… it’s so friendly!

Brands and Bloggers panel

Indeed we created a bit of a buzz at the show all weekend.
Almost every stand I went to asked if I was with the conference and when I went
back to look around the Running Show properly on Sunday I got chatting to
someone from the Run Mummy Run community (identified thanks to the funkycompression socks) who had thought about going to the conference but didn’t. I
was fairly singing its praises and reducing my chances of getting a ticket next
time.

As I sat in my car afterwards eating a bag of chips, bought
purely because I needed to warm up from the inside, I reflected on the day. I’d
come away with a fantastic goody bag including a lululemon yoga mat, nicely
relaxed after a half hour of (chilly) yoga and a glass of vino from the after
event social at the G!ro café down the road. I had met some great people,
become inspired, enthused and felt full of confidence. That feeling hasn’t
really left yet. And despite lusting over lots of lovely new kit and
innovations I managed to resist and only spend a total of £10 - result!

Socialising at the G!ro Cafe

Oh and the Santana fans… well it so happened that after the
show I was going to see Viva Santana at the Boom Boom club down the road in
Sutton. Everyone I mentioned it to claimed to really enjoy Santana’s music…
who’d have thought!